The present invention relates to an air handling and filtering system, and more particularly to an air cleaning system for use with textile spinning machines.
As discussed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,629, with modern textile machines, particularly air spinning machines and open-end spinning machines, a significant amount of dust, fly, and fiber material in general is generated during the yarn spinning process. The fly and fiber material consist essentially of two types: waste fiber material that is generally of little value (trash waste), and reusable fiber material (white waste) which is far more valuable and useful. Various attempts have been made in the art to filter the trash waste and white waste without adversely impacting upon the operation of the textile machines. One such solution is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,629.
Generally, the filtering devices and methods known in the art for separately filtering the white waste and trash waste material require that the exhaust fan be shut off during the cleaning operation while the waste matte is pulled from the filtering devices. This is a time consuming operation which significantly adversely impacts upon the production capacity of the textile machines.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,629, I provided a method and apparatus wherein the white waste is drawn and filtered by a common suction and filtering source, with the trash waste being independently filtered at the textile machines. This system provides a means for cleaning the waste trash filters without the necessity of shutting down the exhaust fan drawing the airstreams. Additionally, drawing of the airstreams with a common suction source is an energy efficient means. In this manner, the airstreams were efficiently filtered and production of the textile machines was not affected.
However, the apparatus and method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,629 still required that an operator enter the end housing unit of the filtering system, which is traditionally attached to the end unit of a textile machine, in order to clean the filtering device which filtered the waste trash material. During the time required for the operator to clean this filter, the airstream conveying the waste trash is no longer being drawn. The invention of the '629 patent also does not provide for common filtering of the waste trash.
The present invention significantly improves upon the method and apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,629, and provides a more efficient method and device for separately filtering and cleaning independent airstreams from a plurality of textile machines.